Staffing Restructure — February 2026

Overview

In a meeting on February 16, 2026, Mark and Karly finalized a staffing restructure at Asymmetric driven by unsustainable payroll costs (~$12k/month combined) and concern about a potential market downturn. The restructure was made feasible by a new AI automation platform that reduces the manual effort required to manage client accounts, allowing a smaller core team to maintain service quality across the full client roster.

See also: ^[1] · ^[2]

Decisions

Ben (~$4k/month) — Let Go

• Decision: Terminate employment.
• Rationale: Role assessed as low-impact; Karly can absorb his accounts (Reynolds, Exterior) in the short term. A new Account Coordinator hire is already in progress.
• Transition: Ben will be notified February 17. He will be paid through end of week and asked to walk Karly through open items and client status. ClickUp tasks to be reviewed for anything requiring immediate attention.

Melissa (~$8k/month) — Offered a Choice

• Decision: Offer two options rather than a straight termination.
• Option 1 — Severance: 1–2 months of pay in exchange for a full account transition handoff.
• Option 2 — Reduced Contractor Role: Reduced pay, project management focus; allows continued income while job searching.
• Rationale: High cost relative to current revenue; her core accounts (Scallon, Citrus, Didion) can be reallocated to Mark and Karly. Mark has existing relationships with Scallon and Citrus.
• Transition requirement: Regardless of which option Melissa chooses, she is expected to assist with account handoffs.
• Notification: Mark will call Melissa the morning of February 17.

La Marie — Separate Decision

• Assessed as low/no-margin account. Karly to contact re: rate increase or offboarding. Not tied to the Ben/Melissa restructure but noted in the same conversation.

Account Reallocation

New Team Structure

Karly is targeting an Account Coordinator hire by February 9 (noted as a near-term goal in the meeting; interviews ongoing). A social media candidate is also in progress, with an in-person interview scheduled for Wednesday.

Enabling Context: AI Platform

The restructure is explicitly enabled by Mark's AI automation platform, which reduces the per-account labor burden significantly. Key capabilities discussed:

• Reads all client data: Google Drive, Slack, email, Google Ads, Search Console, and more
• Generates strategy review docs (4-page: current state, gaps, Q1 priorities)
• Generates channel strategy reports (funnel gap analysis, fit scores for new channels)
• Generates OKR reports (specific, measurable objectives with baselines and targets)
• Runs technical site audits and auto-fixes issues (robots.txt, sitemaps, WordPress health)
• Scripts written for each new issue found are then run across all client sites

Mark's framing: work that would take Karly a week to produce manually is now generated automatically and requires only review and QA.

See ^[1] for full platform documentation.

Action Items

• [ ] Mark: Notify Ben of termination and transition plan — AM call, Feb 17
• [ ] Mark: Notify Melissa of options (severance vs. contractor) — AM call, Feb 17
• [ ] Mark: Update Karly after both calls
• [ ] Mark: Take over Scallon and Citrus; coordinate transition with Melissa
• [ ] Mark: Demo ABM automation tool at 3 PM today (Feb 16)
• [ ] Karly: Cover Reynolds and Exterior accounts during transition
• [ ] Karly: Continue Account Coordinator interviews; target hire by Feb 9
• [ ] Karly: Discuss new strategy document with client Sam on today's call
• [ ] Karly: Email La Marie re: rate increase or offboarding
• [ ] Karly + Mark + Sebastian: Finalize meeting cadence and workflow by end of week (EOW call to be scheduled)

Financial Context

• Combined payroll for Ben + Melissa: ~$12k/month
• Payroll described as a recurring struggle; recent client cancellations have increased pressure
• Mark flagged macro risk: stock market propped up by ~5 AI-related companies; potential for broader downturn affecting client budgets
• Decision framed as proactive risk reduction rather than reactive crisis response